Beneficiary: T Machinery a.s.
Co-beneficiaries: University of West Bohemia
Provider: Ministry of Industry and Trade
Duration: July 30th, 2021 – May 31st, 2023
The subject of the project solution is the research and development of a unique automated mobile welding system intended for small and medium scale repairs of railway tracks with the possibility of use also in hard-to-reach terrains and conditions with the aim of replacing the thermite welding used in small and medium scale repairs, which is not productive and does not reach the quality parameters achieved using electric arc welding.
The project solution is focused on the research and development of a control unit intended for the automation of the rail welding process of railway tracks, where the modern advanced technologies will be used not only within the framework of the welding field, but will be linked to the Industry 4.0 and IT systems, especially in the field of control and monitoring of technological process parameters including data archiving.
The newly developed automated mobile welding system will enable to carry out small and medium scale repairs of railway tops in a comparable quality to the performed welds of railway rails as are carried out during the construction of new tracks, where rails up to 75 m in length (and sometimes also more) are used. In these cases, special welding equipment for railway rails is used, but it cannot be used for small and medium scale repairs of railway tracks, and in any case in hard-to-reach terrains. The advantage of the project solution will also be the possibility of welding of new types of the rails, for example bainitic rails, which are one of the new trends for the solution of rail transport tops.